Hassiba Ben Bouali University of Chlef

Faculty of Foreign Languages

Department of English language
Module: Literature
Level: First Year (all groups)
Second Semester
Lecture: 03
Miss: Ziane Bouziane Latifa

Middle English Literature

In the battle of Hastings, fought on Oct. 14, 1066, Harold II, last of the Anglo-Saxon
kings, was killed. William the Conqueror then assumed the kingship. After subduing vicious
resistance, he established a rule that was almost entirely Norman-French. The Norman
conquest greatly changed English life. All positions of power were filled by Frenchmen. Over
all the old English vigor was imposed this foreign culture.
The Old English language went untaught and was spoken only by “unlettered” people.
The language of the nobility and of the law courts was Norman-French; the language of the
scholars was Latin. This situation lasted for nearly 300 years. During this period the Old
English language changed. Its old case endings broke down, and the grammar became quite
simple. Anglo-Saxon words were lost, and French words were added. The strong, crude iron
of the Old English language was being slowly shaped into the flexible steel of present-day
English.
The cult of chivalry came into being, fed by the great Crusades. The tales of King
Arthur and his Round Table were a result of this movement. Education flourished, and the
first universities, Oxford and Cambridge, were founded in the 12th century.
During these 300 years there was little literature in the changing English language.
The few lyrics (Sumer is icumen in, Alysoun, 1300) and other works (Ormulum,1200;
Layamon's Brut, 1205) have a small interest.
The Middle English period also marked the beginning of a native English drama,
which was at first closely associated with the church. About 900 the antiphonal chant “Quem
quaeritis in sepulchre, o Christocolae?” was first used preceding the Introit of the Mass. Other
dramatic additions were made to the sacred offices, and soon dialogue between individual
members of the choir was added in celebrations of certain feast days. Finally, miniature
dramas developed. In time these little plays (or tropes), becoming more secular, were moved
outdoors. 
 The early cycles of miracle and mystery plays possibly began as celebrations of
traditional religious feasts and fasts. In any case, by the end of the 14th century the
observances of certain festivals for example, Corpus Christi regularly involved pageants.
These plays were staged in larger towns, such as York, Wakefield, and Chester, on wagons
that were moved from place to place in a procession, perhaps chronological, of events. 
In addition to mystery and miracle plays, morality plays were also popular at the end
of the Middle English period. They usually personified such abstractions as Health, Death, or
the Seven Deadly Sins and offered practical instruction in morality.

Chaucer Heralds a New Literature

By the end of the 14th century the language (in its altered form called Middle English)
was being used by nobles as well as commoners. In 1362 it became the language of law court
pleadings, and by 1385 it was widely taught in place of French.
Most of the great literature of the time was written from 1360 to 1400, a good part of it
by one man, Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Canterbury Tales:

In the early 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer began writing his renowned "Canterbury Tales,"
and he made the key decision to write it in English. The "Canterbury Tales" are often
regarded as one of the first great works of English literature, as well as the first indication of
the "artistic legitimacy of vernacular Middle English" over French or Latin.

It's a book that brings together more than 20 accounts from 29 travelers on their way to
Canterbury for pilgrimage. Chaucer compiled and inscribed the stories, which he then
published in a single volume. Short stories in the style of narrative poems and prose fiction
are included in the book. They primarily discuss societal topics such as love, marriage,
loyalty, betrayal, etc.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale: Chaucer was one of the world's greatest storytellers. His
Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece, with characters who remain eternally alive the Wife of
Bath, with her memories of five husbands; the noble Knight, returned from heroic deeds; his
gay young son, the Squire (“He was as fresh as is the month of May”); the delightful Prioress
(“At mete [meat] wel y taught was she with alle/ She leet [let] no morsel from hir lippes
falle.”); and entertaining scoundrels, such as the Friar, Summoner, and Pardoner.
This is a prose fiction told by a woman who married five different men. The story
starts with a prologue that speaks about her appreciation of marriage and of what she wants
from a man. The story itself, tells what the wife of bath really wants from her husbands. It is
characterized by the use of the assonance, which is the repetition of the same vowel sound or
syllable at the end of the words of the same sentence: “the she whispered in his ear, be glad
have no fear”
The Canterbury Tales ends with Chaucer’s Retractions where he renounces all his
secular works including those tales of Canterbury that are immoral.

At the same time as Chaucer, another man was writing in the northern part of England.
He is known as the Pearl Poet, from the name of one of his four poems in an old manuscript.
Generally he is remembered for his narrative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
There are a number of poems about Sir Gawain (just as there are about Sir Lancelot,
Sir Perceval, and King Arthur), but this is the best. Unfortunately, it is written in the
Lancashire dialect and is almost as difficult to read as Old English. Chaucer may be read with
a little study because the Midland dialect in which he wrote became the standard one for
English writing. Even in translation, however, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is
fascinating.
Another poet contemporary with Chaucer was William Langland, a figure almost as
shadowy as the Pearl Poet. His masterpiece, also in a somewhat difficult dialect, is The
Vision of Piers Plowman. It consists of a series of dream-visions in which human life passes
in review. Langland wrote with power and sincerity. He attacked the social ills of his time,
rebuked evildoers, and urged men to “learn to love.”

Legends and Ballads

For nearly 200 years after the death of Chaucer there were almost no great literary
works produced in England. One noteworthy exception is Le Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas
Malory. Malory made up this great collection of stories about King Arthur and his knights of
the Round Table from the Arthurian legends circulating in French plus the English romances
about the knights. Le Morte d'Arthur was the main source for later retellings of the stories.
(See also Malory, Thomas.)
Another outstanding literary achievement of the times was the creation of the great
English and Scottish ballads. These were probably sung by people at social gatherings. The
ballads preserved the local events and beliefs and characters in an easily remembered form. It
was not until several hundred years later that people began to write down these ballads. They
are immensely vivid stories that modern readers find especially attractive. Three familiar
ballads are The Wife of Usher's Well, about her three ghost sons; Sir Patrick Spens,
concerning his death by drowning; and Edward, about his murderous revenge.
 References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1R7_qqQ-lI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PsIgqnX0eI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqM1BHP7uzE

https://www.britannica.com/art/Middle-English-literature